A quick-thinking title company owner was able to stop a fraudulent sale when it appeared the scammer was using AI to try to steal properties.
‘It is not real': Title company owner warns of new twist to title fraud
How to spot AI-generated fakes
It’s not just about spotting Photoshop edits anymore. Now, we can’t even be sure if the person in a photo or video is real.
A U.S. senator was deepfake duped: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., had a Zoom call with a scammer posing as Ukraine’s former foreign minister. The deepfake looked and sounded just like the real guy, and the scammer pressed for Cardin’s opinions on sensitive foreign policy and the upcoming election. Cardin got suspicious and the call ended. It’s still unclear who was behind it.
❤️ For the first time ever: An artificial heart was successfully implanted in a patient with end-stage heart failure. Total Artificial Heart supports patients while they wait for a real heart transplant. With heart failure affecting at least 26 million people globally and fewer than 6,000 transplants performed each year, this could be a medical breakthrough. Four more patients will go through trials soon.
👓 Skip the blue-light glasses: They don’t really protect your eyes from screen strain (paywall link). The real issue is looking at your device too closely for too long and forgetting to blink. We normally blink 15 times per minute, but that drops to six times per minute when staring at screens. Try the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break to look at something 20 feet away.
Heads-up, job seekers: Over 75% of recruiters prefer AI headshots over real ones … but only when they don’t know the photo is AI-generated. Most say they’re put off by AI pics, but they’re not so great at spotting them. On average, recruiters detected AI headshots only 39.5% of the time. Moral of this story: If your real headshots stink, try an AI version.
"We have pics of your home"
Scammers are sending emails with Google Maps images of your house, claiming they’ve hacked your computer. Are they for real? Here’s the answer.
Science anus as easy as it seems: The Ig Nobel Prize (a play on the Nobel Prize) honors those doing quirkier work. Some of this year’s award-winning discoveries: Real plants can imitate the shapes of nearby fake plants, a coin is more likely to land on the side it started (heads or tails), and many mammals can breathe through their anuses. Yup, you read that right.
Amazon's secret profit center
Streaming costs are spiraling, but Amazon’s secret fees are the real eye-opener. What started as a simple $79 Prime membership has ballooned into a $22 billion profit machine — without most people even realizing it.
💰 $2,000 a month for ChatGPT-5: That’s the rumored cost for the next iteration of OpenAI’s chatbot. A Samsung exec leaked it (accidentally?) at a conference. The real question: What could possibly be worth a 100 times price increase? It’d better wash the floors, cook and be able to do all my work for that much money.
Smartphone use and your heart
A new report links heavy smartphone use to an increased risk of heart disease, but the real cause might not be what you’d expect.
Students shocked by smartphone bans
Could this be the key to better learning? Students think so! With more focus, less anxiety, and better social interactions, many are seeing real benefits from the change.
It's official: Facebook censors your opinions
Mark Zuckerberg is now apologizing for censoring conservative views during the pandemic. But the real shocker? He claims it was under pressure from the White House.
Wyoming’s No. 1: It’s the first state with its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. The goal? Faster, cheaper transactions and more revenue for the state. Next year, public audits will show how many tokens are in circulation and the exact amount in the bank. Translation: There’s a real dollar in the bank for every crypto coin.
📸 Shutter up! For real? The latest Apple leak shows the iPhone 16 has a dual vertical-stacked camera. Looks a lot like the camera from the iPhone X. The LED flash is on the side, no longer in the main camera bump. Rumored colors? Blue, teal, pink, black and white. I so want a pink iPhone!
🛌 Taller people sleep longer in bed: Women are turning to ChatGPT to catch guys lying about their height on dating apps. Upload four pics, and a bot can size someone up based on their surroundings and proportions. In a test of 10 people, ChatGPT came within an inch of assessing their real measurements. Short kings, I’ve got you: Height-increasing insoles to the rescue.
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Witch parking – All others will be toad: Scammers are leaving fake parking tickets on windshields. They look like the real deal but have a bogus payment website at the bottom ready and waiting for your credit card details. Always go directly to your city’s or town’s website to pay a parking ticket.
Oh, no, Ozempic: Counterfeit versions of semaglutide weight-loss drugs are easy to find online. Researchers got their hands on three. Of those, the dosages didn’t match the labels, and one was contaminated with bacteria. Btw, three other sites scammed them entirely. Get the real deal from your doc.